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Michael Jardine
'Biography' Detective Chief Inspector Michael Jardine joined the Taggart team in 1987 in the episode The Killing Philosophy as a co-worker of Jim Taggart's. He worked with him on all his cases up until Jim's death in 1994. Jardine was promoted to DCI. In 1990 Jackie Reid was a new policewoman on the job. Mike fancied her. They didn't get together but they were good friends. In 2002 DCI Matthew Burke was put onto a murder case and Michael got suspended, leaving Burke in charge of the case. Mike suddenly became depressed and started abuse himself with alcohol to solve his troubles. In the Taggart episode Death Trap Michael was lured to the edge of the Clyde at night where he was shoved into the river leaving him to drown to death. Jackie Reid, Robbie Ross and Stuart Fraser were all devastated by his death. In 1994 after Mike was promoted to DI, Stuart Fraser took over his job as the long-suffering sidekick. In 1998 after Jack McVitie's death Robbie Ross joined the team, taking on the role of Jardine's former position as Detective Inspector and Michael was promoted to Detective Chief Inspector. Michael died on 14 January 2002 aged 41. The plaque on his gravestone shows that he was born in 1961. In the episode Apocalypse, Michael Jardine's brother Ian shows up and is revealed to be part of a religous cult group; in a conversation he once had with Jim Taggart, he mentions his brothers, ''so we know that he had more than one besides him. In Gingerbread, it was revealed by an old flame of his, Gemma Normanton, that he used to bring half a bottle of vodka to school and keep it in his desk. 'Personality and appearance' In the episode Devil's Advocate, DI Jardine had a disasterous bout in the witness box, and the press described him as puritanical and prudish. He has also been described as being rigid and hierarchial by fellow officer Jackie Reid. In the episode Angel Eyes he was told to unbutton it a little by Superintendent McVitie when he found out that DC Stuart Fraser was gay and his homophobic attitude threatened the progress of the investigation they were working on. In that episode, Jardine is also seen moving into a new flat and the wallpaper that he decides on reflects his tastes and personality. Michael usually liked to work by-the-book. Sometimes, Michael even went too far, like when in Berserker, he punched a fellow detective who comments on his relationship with Jackie. He had blonde hair, blue eyes and sculpted cheekbones and was always smartly dressed, whereas Robbie Ross always looked as though he had just got out of bed and often wore the same shirts he had on the day before. In the episode Wavelength, he is described as working too hard and used to getting his own way. In the episode Death Trap, his personality and attitude is shown at his worst when he is taken off a murder investigation. 'Relationships' 'DCI Jim Taggart' DCI Jim Taggart first met Michael Jardine as a Detective Constable in the episode The Killing Philosophy. The two got on well in spite of the fact that he was a teetolling Christian and also drunk mineral water. Livingstone was clearly jealous when Taggart commented that he used to bounce Michael on his knee and gave the new boy more attention. But the good news was that he and Jim got on well despite their differences and his working relationship with Michael was better than it had been with Peter Livingstone's. In Rogues Gallery, the episode that introduces Women Police Constable Jackie Reid, it is revealed that they sing together in the same quoir. When Taggart finds out about this, he says "Oh no, the singing detective." Michael attends Jim's funeral in the episode Black Orchid and his his former long suffering wife, Jean, tells him that he would've stood up for him when Jardine is accused of raping a women and ends up being investigated by Complaints and Discipline. 'DCI Matthew Burke' In Death Trap, Jardine was replaced as Senior Investigating Officer and was forced to work alongside DCI Matthew Burke - a man who was completely the opposite of him. The pair did not hit it off at all and Jardine even accused Burke of corruption. Yet even when the team complained that Burke wasn't doing things properly, and he started dismissing any theories that the rest of the team had, Jardine told Jackie to give him a chance. When the group found him dead on the mudflats at Langbank, Burke appeared to assume it was suicide, yet Jackie was unconvinced. Burke was also present at Michael's funeral with DSI Valerie Patterson. Later in the next episode, Fire, Burn, Burke said that Jackie was acting more like his widow than his sergeant. A distraught Jackie replied that maybe she was. 'DS Peter Livingstone' Livingstone, who was Taggart's first sidekick, was less than pleased when he came back from his holidays to discover that Jardine was part of the team. He seized every opportunity to give Jardine a hard time and on one occasion, Livingstone left Michael alone in a gay bar. Their last appearance together is in Forbidden Fruit. 'DS Jackie Reid' Michael and Jackie first met in the episode Death Comes Softly, which was also the one when they sung in the same choir. There was some initial attraction between the two but they remained good friends even when Robbie Ross came onto the scene. Taggart warned Jardine about getting any more friendlier with Jackie and that he would be transferred to another post and he wouldn't be able to work with him again. In the episode Dead Reckoning, Jackie goes undercover at an outward bounds activity course in the Highlands, and Michael comes to her rescue when the murderer, Peter Lesser, unclips the rope and she falls in the water below towards the end of the episode. In the episode, Fearful Lightning, when Martin Strange (Larry Lamb) claims to communicate with the ghost of their old boss, Jim Taggart, Michael is showing to appear to be sceptic about this. As an apology for an earlier argument, Jardine gave her a bar of chocolate which she took with her later. Jardine didn't seem to like the fact that Jackie was growing closer to DI Robbie Ross and so she lied to him on the night that Robbie had invited her round for a meal. She said that was simply going out with some friends. In Long Time Dead, Jackie's friend Elaine, who was a computer consultant was Michael's partner for the annual Strathclyde Police Dinner and their relationship ended after it was revealed she'd had an affair with the first victim and she became a suspect. In Dead Reckoning, Michael saved Jackie's life by jumping off a cliff into the rushing waterfall below and punched the murderer into the pool of water. 'DI Robbie Ross' Jardine and Robbie Ross were first introduced in the episode A Few Bad Men and it was by that time that Michael and had been promoted to Detective Chief Inspector. He marked Robbie down as a troublemaker who thought that Michael's idea of a wild goose chase was investigating a counterfiet money scam. An informant of Robbie's - Jakey Miller ended up dead and the two deaths - the other being a soldier at an army barracks - which Jardine and Reid were investigating ended up being connected. 'DC Stuart Fraser' Mike found it difficult to adjust the fact that his young colleague. DC Stuart Fraser was gay. They met in the episode Black Orchid but Jardine didn't find out about Fraser's sexuality until the episode Angel Eyes. He eventually came to respect him and fortunately the two worked well together. Later, it was Fraser who would get a call from Langbank telling him that Michael's body had been found there. Naturally enough, Fraser was devastated by the sudden loss. 'WPC Heather McIntyre' Towards the end of his time on the show, it was shown that Jardine appeared to be about to start a relationship with Women Police Constable Heather McIntyre. In Football Crazy, he even ordered some flowers for her and in Skin Deep, when she brings a cup of tea to his office, Michael says "You never give up do you?" In Falling in Love, Michael went round to Heather's to bring Jackie and Brian's wedding present - a statue - that she'd left in the car and she even invited him in for some coco. Towards the end of the episode you can see Heather looking up at Michael on the balcony with Robbie in the registry office looking down on the wedding scene below as Jackie and Brian took their vows. 'Dr Stephen Andrews' 'Relationships with women' Jardine was hopless when it came to women. In the episode, Gingerbread, Michael was reuinited with an old flame, Gemma Normanton and proposed to her. He got turned down and he found that she already had a fiancee in London. While in Long Time Dead, Mike faced a dilemma when his girlfriend Elaine appeared to be one of the chief suspects. In the episode Rogues' Gallery, Mike is seduced by the art dealer Valerie Sinclair, but of course that also doesn't work out either. In Angel Eyes, Jardine gets closer to the sister of one of the victims - until it turns out that she is HIV positive. Due to the fact that Taggart was a whodunnit, the programme only very rarely offered glimpses of Jardine's private life. In the episode Root of Evil, Jardine started a relationship with a women called Julie, when he and Jim Taggart invested a murder at the Glasgow Garden Festival. Again in Flesh and Blood he is two timed by social worker Fern McCulloch (Hilary Maclean) after having a fling with her while in Devil's Advocate 'Suspension and death''' In 2002 DCI Michael Jardine investigated the murder of a young boy, Johnny Innes who had been shot dead through his bedroom window. It turned out that Johnny was the son of a poweful politician, Malcolm Innes and because of the sensitivity of the case, it had to be wrapped up quickly and well. Michael was then replaced by DCI Matt Burke and Jardine was replaced as Senior Investigating Officer, much to his anger. This was also due to the fact that Jardine had known Malcolm Innes in the past. Neither of the two officers got on well and when Michael was bannished to a dark office below, he started interferring and began to pursue his own line of inquiry. When it was later found out that the killer was still after Innes and Jardine, Robbie arrived at his flat to suspend him permanently. Later on, Jardine was lured to the edge of the River Clyde at night where he was pushed into the dark water below, causing him to drown to death leaving his colleagues, Robbie Ross, Stuart Fraser and Jackie Reid in particular distraught. It took Jackie a long time to get over his death and at the funeral she was the one who did the euology, saying at the end that she loved him, although its unclear whether this was actually more than just platonic. Jardine, Michael